Friday, December 1 2017 17:42

ArmInfo. Armenian Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan and European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice President Vazil Hudak signed a grant agreement worth 2 million euros from the Eastern European Partnership for Energy Efficiency and the Environment (December 1) within the framework of the "Solid Household Waste of Yerevan" program E5P).

According to the press service of the Armenian Ministry of Finance, the program with a budget of 26 million will be financed as follows: loans of 8 million euros will be provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), 8 million EUR in the form of grants through investment tools under the EU's Eastern Neighborhood program and 2 million EUR of grant funds will be allocated to the Eastern European Partnership for Energy Efficiency and the Environment (E5P). Means, as previously reported by the City Hall, are provided for a period of 15 years with a three-year grace period with a floating rate.

The program is aimed at improving the situation with the solid waste management system in Yerevan. It consists of three components. At the first stage, it is planned to build the first two zones and contiguous infrastructures of a new sanitary landfill. The new landfill will be located next to the currently operating garbage dump in Nubarashen, at a distance of 12 km from the center of the capital, which will reduce the negative impact on the environment. Within the second component of the program, it is planned that the existing landfill will be conserved immediately after commissioning a new one. At the end of the program, it is expected that on the new landfill, such infrastructures will be created that will extend the period of its operation.

"The attracted grant funds under the agreement will be used to finance the second component of the program," the Ministry of Finance of Armenia said in a statement.

In September 2016 the Armenian government decided to provide a territory of 24.4 hectares for the creation of a new solid waste landfill in Yerevan. As the first vice-mayor of Yerevan Kamo Areyan noted then, the range will serve about 770 thousand inhabitants of the capital and adjacent territories. At the same time, he stressed that the territory provided for the landfill, although it is listed for the organization "ArmForest", was never a forest, and, in fact, is the continuation of the existing landfill. At the same time it was announced that the new landfill would be put into operation presumably by 2021. On the new landfill, the necessary infrastructure will be created, including fencing, external lighting, a drainage basin, office buildings, and access roads will be built. It is planned to create parking lots and a cleaning station for machines.

Serious landscape works will also be carried out, including the exclusion of waste penetration into groundwater. It is planned to place special installations and a generator, for the conversion of gases and their processing into electricity.

According to the studies conducted within the framework of the "Clean Armenia" program, there are about 2300 dumps in Armenia occupying more than 430 hectares. According to Inga Zarafyan, the president of the information NGO EkoLur, out of these numerous landfills, a partial garbage management is carried out only in the Nubarashen garbage dump in Yerevan, where the Japanese company Shimizu burns biogas accumulated in a landfill on 7 hectares. In other landfills, garbage simply accumulates. According to the development strategy of the solid waste management system of the Republic of Armenia for the period from 2017 to 2036, 90 million euros are needed for proper disposal of garbage in Armenia.